Nerdly » ‘The Long Walk’ 4K UHD Review

23rd Dec2025

‘The Long Walk’ 4K UHD Review

by Matthew Turner

Stars: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Judy Greer, Mark Hamill, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot | Written by JT Mollner | Directed by Francis Lawrence

Based on Stephen King’s first novel (written in 1967, but not published until 1974), The Long Walk is a deadly dystopian competition thriller in which 50 young men compete in a walking contest, in order to win “unimaginable riches” and the granting of a wish. It’s directed by Francis Lawrence, who’s no stranger to the dystopian competition genre, having directed several instalments of the Hunger Games series.

The film takes place in the American Midwest, in an unspecified time period. The rules of the contest are simple: the 50 young men must walk until there is only one of them left. However, there is a catch – if they leave the road, or if their walking speed drops below 3 miles an hour, they will be eliminated, via a gunshot to the head, as ordered by the contest’s overseer, The Major (Mark Hamill).

One of the men is Ray Garatty (Cooper Hoffman), who serves as our entry point into the story, as we first meet him being driven to the contest by his distraught mother (Judy Greer). Ray quickly befriends his fellow competitors – including Peter McVries (Rye Lane’s David Jonsson) and wise-cracking Hank Olson (Ben Wang) – and they’re joined by the more antagonistic Barkovich (Charlie Plummer) and peak fitness specimen Stebbins (Garrett Wareing), who’s convinced he will win.

The script, by JT Mollner, is excellent, creating an exceptionally bleak atmosphere and successfully getting the audience to invest in these characters, even though we know from the start that only one will be left standing at the end. A key part of that is down to the dialogue, which is both emotionally engaging and, at times, darkly funny.

However, the main reason The Long Walk works as well as it does is the casting. Hoffman and Jonsson, in particular, are terrific, and their powerfully moving relationship forms the beating heart of the story.

In addition, there’s strong support from Plummer, whose character has the most interesting arc, and a likeable, blackly comic turn from Wang. Similarly, Hamill is clearly enjoying himself as The Major (he never even takes off his sunglasses), finding the sweet spot between over-the-top cartoonish caricature and a chilling figure of pure, state-sponsored evil.

There’s an extra layer of darkness in the special effects, which render every headshot with plenty of nasty-looking gore. The Long Walk doesn’t skimp on the effects elsewhere either, though audiences might wish they had – let’s just say the film answers any questions about toilet-based practicalities in brutally graphic fashion.

If there’s a problem with the film, it’s only that there’s the occasional slip-up on the detail. The most egregious example is that at one point a character has to take off his shoes for the rest of the walk, and this is somehow never mentioned again, without even a close-up of bloody feet for a pay-off.

On a similar note, some audiences may be frustrated by the lack of specificity with regard to the nature of the dystopia. However, this works well because it forces the audience to imagine the dire circumstances under which something like the Long Walk competition might seem like a viable way out.

On top of that, it allows for the anti-war allegory (presumably King’s intention, as it was written while Vietnam was ongoing) to resonate, as well as the suggestion that we are already in a dystopia and something like this might not be far away – the contest is, of course, televised, though we never see any evidence of this.

Presented in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio, The Long Walk looks terrific in 4K, with the HEVC/H.265 encode delivering a sharp, filmic image that benefits greatly from the jump to 2160p, while Dolby Vision and HDR10 add welcome depth to contrast and colour. On the audio side, the Dolby Atmos track provides an immersive soundscape, backed up by a robust Dolby TrueHD 7.1 option, with additional Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in French and Spanish plus an audio descriptive track. Subtitles are included in English SDH, French, and Spanish. The 4K comes as a steelbook and includes the following extras:

Special Features:

Alternate Ending: A longer version closer to the original novel’s concept, often considered a major draw.
Ever Onward: Making The Long Walk: A comprehensive, multi-part documentary (over an hour total) covering the film’s origins, production, and challenges.
Stephen King: An Appreciation: Thoughts from the cast on the acclaimed author.
Cooper & David Scene Read: A split-screen look at the lead actors’ read-through.
Theatrical Trailers: Includes multiple trailers for the film.

In short, The Long Walk is an extremely impressive Stephen King adaptation that delivers chills and gore and touching emotion in equal measure. It’s also a terrific showcase for the talents of Hoffman (very much his father’s son, with every movie he makes) and rising star Jonsson. Here’s hoping they find a way to work together again, because their chemistry here is irresistible.